Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison. English-only reading by default; switch among English, Chinese, and Spanish, or compare languages side by side.
This chapter develops the memoir’s account of Chapter L. IT WAS NIGHT; SILENCE AND GLOOM HAD SETTLED DOWN ON THE INMATES., connecting personal narrative with the financial, legal, and prison-world setting of the period. The chapter’s opening perspective is: By a refinement of cruelty we had been separated and sent to prison wide apart; for twenty years I had not seen the face of one of my friends. But there was an invisible bond between us that no tyranny could break.
This chapter is for readers following Bidwell’s memoir chapter by chapter, especially the section titled “Chapter L. IT WAS NIGHT; SILENCE AND GLOOM HAD SETTLED DOWN ON THE INMATES..” It is most useful for readers interested in financial crime history, nineteenth-century banking culture, criminal justice, prison memoir, and the social setting of the period.
Read “Chapter L. IT WAS NIGHT; SILENCE AND GLOOM HAD SETTLED DOWN ON THE INMATES.” as a historical memoir rather than guidance. The banking procedures, legal assumptions, public reputation, social judgments, travel conditions, and prison practices described belong to Bidwell’s nineteenth-century setting and may not match modern institutions.